1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to projectiles and more particularly relates to a novel, precision shooting, aerodynamic, non-spherical, safety-oriented projectile comprising a non-toxic, soft, elastic gelatin, usable for police activities, mock hunting, games, sports, military activities, and the like including but non-limited to those commonly referred to as Paintball, Adult War Games, Adventure Games, Action Pursuit Games, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of spherical and non-spherical metallic and/or rubber/plastic projectiles, for the purpose of causing bodily harm or impairment to human beings and/or animals, in a variety of guns is well known. The use of such metallic, and/or rubber/plastic projectiles/bullets presents inherent safety problems and risk of bodily harm and/or impairment when such projectiles are deliberately fired at people or animals in activities such as, but not limited to, Adventure Games, police training, military exercises, mock hunting, sports, and games. Use of known metallic and/or rubber/plastic projectiles/bullets can also substantially and unacceptably damage the general environment.
The use of a soft gelatin capsule in a method for marking trees with a marking fluid has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,943. According to that description the gelatin capsule has a wall thickness from 0.02 inches to 0.03 inches and a diameter of 0.25 inches to 0.75 inches. The capsule contains from 0.25 cc to 1.25 cc of marking fluid, generally a pigmented liquid such as an oil-based paint, or the like, useful for marking stationary articles, such as trees. However, this marking capsule would present certain disadvantages in other applications, such as projectiles for Adventure Games. In particular, the amount and/or type of fluid in the capsule inhibit precision shooting, due to the fact that the shape of the capsule is based on the amount of fluid contained therein. As a result, the capsule generally is unacceptably inaccurate for precision shooting. It operates at velocities of 50 to 200 feet per second and cannot be used for anything other than very short range shooting with any degree of accuracy, whereas Adventure Games activities need a much greater accuracy range, are often shot at smaller targets, which often move, and often shoot back, while operating at velocities preferably about 250 feet per second to about 325 feet per second with potentially higher velocities involved in the mock hunting activity. If such capsules containing indelible fluids were used in Adventure Games the resulting staining would be difficult or impossible to wash clean from clothing, buildings, or the accessible general environment. Also, such breakage, when applied to Adventure Games or mock hunting, present a very high possibility of accidental ingestion by a human being or deliberate ingestion by a animal that could be chemically harmful to the human or the animal. Moreover, breakages of the capsules containing indelible fluids would be harmful to the environment and protected trees, such as Oak trees.
The use of a soft gelatin capsule containing marking fluid in a marking method for target shooting on a stationary non-soft target or the like has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,092. According to that description, a target shooting capsule is used which comprises a substantially spherical, non-toxic, soft, elastic, seamless gelatin capsule having a dry wall thickness of about 0.004 inches to about 0.013 inches, having a diameter of about 0.16 inches to about 0.265 inches, and containing about 0.03 cc to about 0.12 cc of a water-washable, non-toxic, dye fill material. The substantially spherical capsule was designed and intended to impact on a relatively non-soft, solid, and stationary target. However, the substantially spherical capsule has certain disadvantages in other applications such as Adventure Games. In particular, it would have to be fired at a much higher velocity in order to break upon and mark a soft solid target, such as a human or animal, because the force needed to break the seamless capsule is much greater than that required to break a multi-piece seamed capsule. As a result, the substantially spherical capsule could cause unacceptable bodily harm and/or impairment to a human or animal. Moreover, a substantially spherical capsule is generally not spin stable and therefore inaccurate when compared to an aerodynamic, non-spherical, spin stable, projectile.
There exists today in the public domain a substantially spherical capsule utilized primarily, but not exclusively, for Adventure Games. This gelatin capsule has a wall thickness of about 0.010 inches to 0.020 inches with a diameter of about 0.500 inches to about 0.700 inches and is substantially spherical. This substantially spherical capsule being manufactured with a diameter of approximately 0.500 inches, 0.620 inches and 0.680 inches with the disadvantages and advantages of each hotly disputed within the industry, both verbally and in print. The 0.680 inch diameter is today the principal capsule of choice in practice. This substantially spherical capsule consists of two gelatin strips connected together by a rotary die process, which results in the substantially spherical capsule having a seam and containing a non-toxic dye fill material which is water washable.
This substantially spherical capsule has serious disadvantages because it is substantially spherical. In particular, because the substantially spherical capsule is fed into a gun primarily by a gravity feed method, there is no way to consistently control the positioning of the seam in the gun barrel. As a result, not only will the substantially spherical capsule generally strike the soft solid target randomly with respect to the seam, it may not strike the soft solid target with any portion of the seam at all. The seam is the weakest part of the substantially spherical capsule and almost all breakages of the substantially spherical capsule, as a result of impact on a soft solid target, first occur somewhere on or along the seam line. Consequently this requires that the capsule be consistently fired at a greater velocity in order to cause a break on the seam line of the substantially spherical capsule without the necessity of impacting on the seam line, which in a safety oriented recreational activity such as Adventure Games is a very undesirable condition.
As another result of not impacting primarily on the seam line, if at all, the substantially spherical capsule will quite often simply bounce off the soft solid target without breaking. If the activity is Adventure Games and the soft solid target is an opposing player and the substantially spherical capsule bounces off this player, this results in the player that was impacted not being called out of the game even though the players, because of the impact, might think this is the case. This can cause confusion, bad feelings, and arguments and necessitates that the player must be shot again to achieve the necessary mark in order to remove said player from the game. Such is an unsafe and undesirable result to the shooter, shootee, and the playing arena owner who may assume liability for the activities to some extent.
Accuracy of the substantially spherical capsule is generally inconsistent because the capsule generally does not rotate/spin about an axis along the direction in which the substantially spherical capsule is traveling and because the capsule is commonly fired from a smooth barrel it tends to develop a spin/rotation. Even given the condition that would cause the substantially spherical capsule to consistently spin/rotate about an axis along the direction in which the substantially spherical capsule is traveling, the random placement of the seam could, in flight, tend to cause frictional force which is asymmetric, relative to the direction of motion, at the seam line because the seam line would not consistently be either parallel to or perpendicular to the initial direction of flight, resulting in loss of shooting accuracy. Manual placement of the substantially spherical capsule would defeat the purpose of pump action and semi-automatic action guns which dramatically dominate the marketplace. Manual placement would still, if attempted, present inherent placement accuracy problems based on human error and even then the substantially spherical capsule would tend not to consistently maintain this alignment relative to the centerline of the initial direction in flight. This resulting inaccuracy of the substantially spherical capsule is common and undesirable.
The substantially spherical capsule tends not to leave a consistent mark on soft solid targets such as a human or animal body. Because of the seam's random position upon impact, the marking capability of the substantially spherical capsule can be anywhere from near zero to near maximum, inasmuch as the marking fluid will tend to be expelled though the seam first, which is frequently not in the direction of flight. This causes part or all of the marking fluid to have its destination at places other than the point of impact. This is undesirable when applied to Adventure Games in that certain size marks, depending upon the playing arena, are required to remove the player from the game. Furthermore, the mark left on the player is not required to be circular, simply the required size when considered in total, at the primary point of impact and marks not at the primary point of impact are not considered into the total mark size.
Accordingly, there has been a felt but unfulfilled need for a precision shooting, aerodynamic, non-spherical, safety oriented projectile which shoots reliably, requires less initial velocity than that of a comparable substantially spherical capsule of approximately the same mass, weight and volume to travel the same distance, and will generally impact on the same portion of the projectile and in generally the same manner for uniformity in marking the target upon impact, with improved spin stability, safety, and accuracy. Moreover, the projectile should be inexpensive and easy to use and be accurate to shoot, even at comparatively long range.